Special Abilities
Many BattleForge cards include abilities that enhance the card beyond the mundane. Tbere are only a few mundane creatures with no special abilities. Abilities can be attacks or offensive spells, like the Giant Wyrm's Corrosive Breath special ability. Other abilities can be defensive or augmentative, like Defenders' Resilient ability. For creature and building cards, each ability are granted in one of four ability modes: passive, auto-cast, activatable, and toggled. All cards with special abilities list the name of their ability -- or abilities, if more than one -- on their card in the box below the artwork. The name is preceeded with an icon indicating its ability mode. In contrast, all spell card effects are activated when the card is played. Since the ability mode is implicitly activated, spell cards list the name of the spell effect, but not the ability mode. Ability Modes Passive Ability The effects of passive abilities are always active, requiring no action by the player. Auto-cast Ability The effects of auto-cast abilities are performed automatically when a suitable target is in range. The ability typically has a short cooldown period, after which the ability will automatically recast if a target is in range. Auto-cast effects are typically ranged attacks, however there are exceptions. For instance, the Kobold Engineer has the Architect ability, which has the effect of repairing a damaged structure. Activatable Ability Ability is activated manually, requiring the player to trigger the ability's effect. To activate the ability, the player must first select a unit or building with an ability. The player then clicks the ability icon to left of the entity's portrait. By default, the shortcut key for a selected unit's activatable ability is typically 'Z'. Alternatively, if a unit with an ability is on screen, the player can click the ability icon hovering above the unit. The hovering special ability icon feature can be turned on and off in Options in the Advanced Controls page. Toggled Ability Toggled abilities allow an entity to change between two modes. Typically, a mode will apply certain effects to the entity and each mode might enable certain abilities not available in the other mode. Abilities Overview Common Passive Abilities Following is a list of common passive abilities with a short description. Charge :The creature charges at enemies at a high speed. Corpse Gathering :The creature harvests energy from the souls of nearby corpses equal to their former maximum life points. This energy can be used to enable effects like summoning creatures, special attacks, healing, etc.... Crippling :The creature causes attacked targets to move slowly for a short duration. Earth Dive :While moving around, the creature takes less damage and knocks back small and medium units dealing additional damage to ground units in target area. Hardened Skin :The creature takes 50% less from ranged and magical attacks. Instability :The creature loses life points periodically. Life Stealer :Some of the damage dealt by the unit will be added to its life points Linked Fire :The creature can link fire with other creatures with this ability. Linked Fire is enabled when the creature is not attacking, instead diverting its attack potential to the friendly unit, thereby boosting the friendly unit's attack. Looter :When the creature attacks a building, some of that building's original power is taken away and transferred to the creature's owner. The amount is typical the building's cost times the building's current life point (health) percentage. Rage :The creature does increasingly more damage the longer it attacks the same target. Rally :Creatures summoned within the effect's radius are not dazed (arrive with full health and can immediately activate and toggle abilities). Regeneration :While not in combat, the creature periodically regenerates some of its life points. Siege :The creature deals more damage when attacking structures (Buildings, Walls, Orbs, and Power Wells). Slow :The creature moves at slower speed. Steadfast :The creature is immune from knockback effects. Stomp :The creature tramples small creature, walking over opponents instead of around them. All large and extra-large ground creatures implicitly have this ability. Extra-large ground creatures also trample enemy medium-sized creatures . Swift :The creature moves at high speed. Category:Game Mechanics Special Abilities, Overview Category:Spells and Abilities